Chapter 1
THE TRAGIC scene of what happened on that Monday noon at Southeast Oklahoma, US, on the 5th of October 1892, and precisely at around 12:01 A.M was still playing vividly in his head as he walks home on that sunny, unseasonably mild day.
As an impartial district attorney, he couldn’t stop thinking.
He had witnessed the bizarre executions of 12 notorious gangsters who had been on death row for the past fifteen years, convicted for first degree murder and rape by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and executed at McAlester, a maximum security prison which was over a hundred miles Southeast of Oklahoma City.
And on Tuesday, 6th October the next morning, the front-page headline of Ada Evening News had read, “Draconian Justice: The Execution of 12 Convicted Murderers.”
* * *
Now barely two months after the bizarre execution of the hardened, notorious gangsters, and with the Christmas season fast approaching that year – 1892 – he had been invited to give speech to members of the Oklahoma judicial council.
Mr. Kaila was indeed a man of charismatic personality with a great power of oratory.
As he was called on, all the indigent lawyers, the forest of men and women of great antecedents who graced the occasion gave him a great welcome.
The sound of enthusiastic applause surrounded the hall as he stepped on stage.
Everyone was rapt in attention, listening to the most vibrant and successful district attorney in United States history who has been highly respected and recognized, though not only at home but also in the diasporas!
At the conference, the attorney delivered a speech on the subject, The Way Forward to Eradicating Crime and gave the most poignant speech that sent the crowds into a paroxysm of applause.
His thoughts, no doubt, on the subject were beautifully conceived and brilliantly constructed, and they had loved it! At the end, Kaila was surrounded by a miasma of adulation.
But as he walked out of the conference hall not quite long after the meeting, the lights were on and the cameras were rolling. The press corps became unusually rowdy when he got to the driveway.
Big comments were expected to come out of the interview today, and no one wanted to miss a word.
“There will be no questions and answers,” the district attorney had stated.
A mild of thundering questions from the assembled reporters only followed his remarks. But he has made his own state of reference, he thought. Besides, everyone knew there would be time for comments and answers – maybe later . . . or maybe not.
However after the attorney’s no-questions-and-answers statement, one of the media correspondents, in her unusual manner, stepped forward and asked, “Sir, what’s your take regarding the 12 convicted criminals executed through electric chair which perhaps could be cruel and totally inhuman?
Don’t you think such method of execution is, perhaps, inhuman in our modern day present society?
And sir, don’t you think there should be a better way than through this cruel, inhuman mechanism?”
“Personally,” the district attorney had replied, “and on behalf of the Oklahoma City, I wish to express my deepest sympathy to the families and friends of those executed for murder crime and rape at 1:02 P.M on Monday October 5th 1892, at H Unit.
Though the one reason behind this is, perhaps, to dissuade others from the crime of murder in the state.
However, this morning we spoke with the Speaker of the House on the need to revisit the constitution, and the reports filed are yet to be tendered at the floor of the parliaments for debates.
At least for now, and as you can see, the constitution or the law does not object to such method, and that’s what we’re presently trying hard to amend. So we expect to eliminate all capital punishment or rather, the act of electrocution for hardened murderers as unconstitutional.”
The press corps began applauding, whistling and hooting. It was their way of confirming to the attorney’s remarks.
But few minutes after the assembled reporters settled down, Ms. Sophia Lima of a private broadcasting media asked, “Well, rumor has it that the Governor sent condolence notes to the families of those executed through this draconian means of justice the city of Oklahoma had been a strong disciple to but -”
“Well,” he chirped in, cutting her off flatly, “I guess I’ll be leaving for H Unit, and hope to get there in approximately twenty-five minutes. Later members of the parliaments will be holding preliminary session today scheduled at 8A.M.
The purpose is to focus on the constitutional reform on execution by electric chair, and rules and procedures to be followed for those sentenced to death for the crime of murder and to discuss certain privileges they may be afforded, possibly.”
Kaila always knew what to say. He hopped into his car and went off.
On his way home, however, he drove to the maximum security prison which was southeast Oklahoma where he met the Prison Comptroller lounging in a spring-back chair with a cup of coffee, reading newspaper with his feet propped on a table.
The atmosphere was charged with violence when he visited the prison; filled with raucous noises, curses, enthusiasms and hysterical laughter coming from the inmates.
They shouted at the top of their voices, some dancing like a demon on a chase senselessly with a dollar bill.
